What does it look like to bring Hope to a community?

I can vividly remember the spring of 2013 when Jake and I first walked down this small alleyway in the community of Oak View. At that time, we had no organization, no volunteers, no money, no location, and no relationship within the community we were hoping to serve. All we had was this very simple question we were determined to answer… what does it look like to bring hope to a community? 

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You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

It’s possible that this verse speaks to me because one of my favorite artists wrote a song about it, but nonetheless it’s incredibly beautiful. It reminds me of my childhood where I grew up at the foot of some mountains where a creek ran behind our backyard. Most days were spent exploring the creek and trying to journey as far as I possibly could in order to still make it home by dinner. There was a since of adventure I felt as I got to scrape my knees on the rocks and get my shoes wet when the creek was too wide to jump across. It’s as if in those moments the real joy of the Lord had room to set in. 

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A look into a great Disciple

There are so many crazy people and stories in the Bible; you have Moses who through God parted The Red Sea, David who slayed Goliath, Samson who killed a lion, and Paul who was stoned and bitten by a snake. Out of all these people my all-time favorite is Barnabas! When I was growing up, I knew him just as the guy who encouraged people, with his thumbs permanently up, patting everyone on the back with a big smile on his face. However, Barnabas was so much more than that! He was ultimately a disciple maker, someone who discovered people that needed guidance and then developed them into mature disciples...

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A look into the Reality behind our reality

There’s a beautiful moment captured in John 21 in which Jesus appears to seven of His disciples after He had been resurrected from the dead. The reason I love this story so much is because I find that I can relate perfectly to how the disciples must’ve felt that particular day. It was a day in which seemed as though everything was back to normal, or as we often say “back to reality”. The fact that the disciples walked with Jesus and learned from Him leading up to His crucifixion was undeniable, and un-mistakenly life changing for all of them.  However, as Jesus was no longer with them, they went back to doing what they figured was the most natural thing for them to do… they went fishing...

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The Simple Gospel.. A look into keeping things simple. 

I can remember 5 years ago stepping into the Oak View community with nothing, no building to house kids, no soccer field, no skate parks, no relationships, no promise of something great happening in the future. We had no idea what to expect, all we knew is that we wanted to form relationships with these kids we didn’t yet know, and from those relationships make disciples...

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